The Parole Board says it is not sure whether any conditions placed on Ewen Macdonald would address the risk he would pose to the community if released.
The board today explained why it denied Macdonald's second application for parole last week.
Macdonald is serving a five-year jail sentence for a number of crimes committed in September 2012 relating to the Feilding farm he helped manage, including killing calves with a hammer, stealing deer and vandalising brother-in-law Scott Guy's home and arson. He was also tried for the murder of Mr Guy, but was acquitted.
A report given to the board said Macdonald has "a significant personality disturbance".
Macdonald "falls within the low-risk category for future violent and general recidivism" and has received counselling for poor communication, stress and bottling up emotions, the report says.
However, the report's author believes the deeper motivations behind Macdonald's offending had been addressed.
"The high-risk situations identified in the safety plan do not include situations reminiscent of his offending behaviour i.e. situations involving revenge, entitlement, perceived injustice, envy, which, in the absence of effective external scrutiny and presence of stress, would represent a high-risk situation.
"In a situation whereby the same motivational, disinhibiting and destabilising factors converged, Mr Macdonald would continue to pose a clinically significant risk of reoffending."
The board also noted Macdonald's plans if he were released from prison needed more detail.
He planned to move to Christchurch with a person who had been visiting him regularly. However, he had not been to the home recently or knew Christchurch very well.
An offer of employment at a firewood yard had also apparently been made and confirmed with a handshake.
"He needs to provide more detail than that," the board said.
Macdonald did not have detailed plans of what he would do if did not find work or what he would do with his spare time.
It's also not known how he would deal with stressful situations, including whether he could get work, problems in relation to his children, a dispute with someone or if the media became intrusive.
"Given his personality profile, we wonder whether any plan, with any number of conditions, or any additional therapy, is sufficient to address his assessed risk," said the board.
Macdonald's full sentence ends in April 2016.
3 News
source: newshub archive
